


Better Here, Together

by tylerfucklin (orphan_account)



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Family, Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-09
Updated: 2012-09-09
Packaged: 2017-11-13 20:47:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/507566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/tylerfucklin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There was a reason Derek already knew about the alpha pack.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Better Here, Together

**Author's Note:**

> My submission for the fanfic contest. ;~;

  
  
Derek had no idea who would have tagged their front door. Even then, he wasn’t necessarily concerned about the fact that someone would spend time actually painting a—whatever it was—on their apartment door, but he did wonder momentarily if it would cost them their security deposit. He and Laura were barely scraping by, trying to make ends meet. It was tight, covering their bills, as well as paying the portion of Derek’s classes at the community college that his scholarships couldn‘t cover. Laura had told them they had an inheritance coming, but the insurance brokers loved to keep them in the dark about why they had yet to see a penny of it.  
  
He pulled out his phone, which was probably the oldest model of pay-as-you-go that still existed in the world, and texted Laura to let her know what to expect when she got off of her shift at the bakery. A quick sniff didn’t tell him much about the perpetrators, and it was only a second, deeper inhale that set off alarms in Derek’s head. Whoever had tagged their door hadn’t been human. They smelled like wolves—more specifically, like Laura did, and like mom had. It didn’t make any sense, because Derek didn’t think any alpha wolf would be childish enough to graffiti all over another pack’s door.  
  
However, the symbol was close to same exact one dad had used to plaster on everything he could think of. Dad had always exaggerated the importance of werewolf pride, the very reason half their belongings had been labeled with a spiraling triskele on one part or another. _This_ symbol, though, had no spirals. It was jagged and harsh looking, all angles and none of the elegance Derek was used to seeing in a triskele. It made him uneasy, and so very wary of what it could mean.  
  
Derek unlocked the door, slipping inside and flipping both the deadbolt and the chain lock, just to be on the safe side. He sent Laura another text, one to let her know that he had caught the scent of an alpha, and that the symbol might be something she recognized. Laura might have only been two years older than Derek, but mom and dad had known for years she would be the next alpha. It was why they’d taught her things that Derek had never gotten the chance to learn. They’d never discouraged Derek from learning, but nor had they ever really made him stay home to hear about any of it, either.  
  
It wasn’t really anyone’s fault but his own. That’s what he deserved for blowing off family history lessons to go and see Kate. Not even three years could make that reminder hurt any less.  
  
Laura didn’t text him back right away, probably because they got slammed at the bakery during the afternoon rush, so Derek set up shop on the secondhand table in the living room. He upended his backpack onto it, books and papers spilling out gracelessly and covering the entire surface over the scattering of bills and other things. The table wobbled and he crouched down to fit the crossword puzzle book back under the uneven leg before sitting down and going about doing his homework.  
  
He only had a few semesters left before he got his AA degree, which Derek knew would put Laura over the moon with delight. She’d foregone any secondary education for his benefit, which was exactly why Derek forced himself through hours of studying and lectures when he’d rather just bus tables for a few days a week so Laura looked a little less tired every day. Even Derek knew that being a werewolf didn’t mean you could work tirelessly for days on end.  
  
When Laura’s reply finally came through, Derek had plowed through his history assignment and had been spending the past ten minutes staring at his calculus work like it could fill itself out. He opened the message, heart freezing in his chest when all he saw was: _lock everything and stay away from the windows. I’m coming home._  
  
Derek tucked his phone back into his pocket, packing his homework up and locking everything that could be locked in their small studio apartment. Laura wasn’t much for joking around—not like this. It didn’t mean good things, Derek knew. He grabbed his backpack and went into the bathroom, shutting and locking the door so he could sit against it and do some reading for his English assignment until Laura got home.  
  
He heard her jogging up the stairs before she’d even busted in the apartment door, wrenching the chain lock out of the wall in the process. Normally, Derek would point out to her that being an alpha didn’t necessarily constitute destroying innocent door locking mechanisms, but Laura was halfway to frantic and her heart was all-but beating out of her chest.  
  
“Get your stuff. Pack what you can. We’re leaving.” Laura went straight for her dresser, wrenching it open and upending it onto her twin bed. Derek stood in the bathroom doorway, questions on his tongue when Laura snapped her head around, eyes flashing red and baring her fangs. “Do it _now_ , Derek!”  
  
Something inside of Derek forced him to obey, pushed him to cross the room and start going through his dresser for some clothes to pack. “Where are we going?”  
  
“Away from here—and don’t forget that gray shirt I got you. It was like thirty dollars, and I swear to God if you leave it for one of your stupid tank tops, I will throw you out the window of the car while we’re on the highway.” Any other day, Derek would have gotten irritated that she was policing him like he was still fourteen years old, but her words were tight. Derek did exactly that, grabbing the gray shirt and all of the other clothes Laura had ever spent extra money on. He had a feeling that anything could set her off. The air was practically crackling with the tension she was exuding.  
  
“When are we coming back?” Derek had an essay due in a week. He hated turning in late assignments, because the teachers always gave him these pained looks like he’d never amount to anything.  
  
“We’re not.“ Laura said tightly as she grabbed a trash bag from under the sink and started full-arm sweeping things from the pantry into it. Derek hesitated in rooting through his underwear drawer for a matching pair of socks, an uneasy and painful sinking feeling hitting him that made his stomach churn. He didn’t like the way she was acting. He’d never seen her this frantic, not even after they’d been turned away by pack after pack during their trip across the country. After a while, she’d given up trying to find help with other werewolves, which was why they’d settled down in Brooklyn in the first place. Too many scents for any nearby packs to really feel threatened by them.  
  
Laura tossed the bag of food by the front door and gestured angrily at Derek to hurry up. Derek scooped the entire contents of his drawer into his arms and tossed it all on the bed. “Laura, what’s going on?”  
  
“Nothing good, Derek!” Laura cried, throwing her arms up and then grabbing the corners of her comforter. “That’s an alpha pack symbol. Alpha packs are _bad things_ when the only werewolves in our pack are you and me.” Laura tugged the corners over the pile of clothes and trinkets she’d made in the center, hauling the entire bundle over her shoulder. The second her words hit, it like lighting a fire under Derek’s feet, the implication of what she said being enough to make Derek grab his favorite leather jacket, two pairs of boots and toss them into the pile.  
  
“When are they coming back?”  
  
“I don’t _know_ , Derek!” Laura wrenched the door open and snagged the trash bag of food in her free hand. “Stop asking questions and put your stuff in the car. Don’t forget your wallet, either!”  
  
Derek detoured to the bathroom, grabbing his backpack and snagging his wallet. When he turned around, Laura had already gone out the door and down the stairs, unlocking the car so she could toss everything in the trunk. Derek hurried to grab his quilt full of belongings and hauling it out of the apartment. He turned to close the door behind himself Laura’s voice came from the parking lot.  
  
“Forget the door, Derek! Get in the car!”  
  
Derek did as he was told, leaving their apartment door wide open in lieu of jogging down the stairs. Laura wasn’t much for yelling, and just hearing her sound so angry had an all new sense of panic firing through him. Laura barely let him climb in the front seat after putting his things in the trunk before she was peeling out of the parking lot, tires squealing and the engine roaring so loud it made Derek cringe. Somewhere, dad was rolling in his grave at seeing how brutal Laura was with the handling of his precious car.  
  
Once they’d hit the main road, Laura was fumbling with her phone to try and dial out on it.  
  
“Don’t wreck the—“  
  
“Derek!“ Laura growled, half focused on shakily scrolling through her contacts list, and half focused on the road. “I know I always tell you to open up and talk more, but I would really appreciate it if you just—“ Laura broke off, slamming on the breaks when they hit a red light and then shutting her eyes. She inhaled, and then slowly unclenched her hand from the steering wheel as she let out a long breath. It was the same calming action that Peter had taught them both when they were learning how to control their shift during the first stages of puberty. Laura’s fingers twitched on the steering wheel, and she turned to give Derek a pleading look. It was a look that had no hint of alpha in it, but was 100% Laura.  
  
“Five minutes, Derek. Just give me five minutes, okay?”  
  
“Okay.” Derek slid down in his seat as Laura drove through the green light, bringing her phone up to her ear.  
  
She was on the phone for much longer than five minutes, frantically talking to some of the packs that they’d met along their way, those who had allowed Derek and Laura a few days respite in their homes before sending them along. Each call ended with more and more curses leaving Laura’s mouth before she threw her phone across the dashboard with vicious spitting of expletives.  
  
Derek sunk down even further, overcome with the desire to be as small as possible. Laura flexed her hands on the steering wheel, pulling into a gas station that sat just before the highway on-ramp. They rolled up to one of the pumps and Laura cut the engine before turning to Derek with a tight smile. “Why don’t we get some snacks, huh? You can get whatever you want, as long as it’s less than five dollars.”  
  
Laura’s cheer was visibly faked and her smile didn’t reach her eyes. It reminded Derek of the first few weeks after the—after Kate—when Laura had tried so hard to be good to Derek. The memory sent a sharp pain through Derek’s chest. It was an ache that traveled down his nerves and prickled all the way to his fingertips. He swallowed, nodding and trying to return the smile.  
  
“Come on,” Laura slipped out of the car once she’d grabbed her purse, ushering Derek into the gas station like she was his personal body guard.  
  
Standing in the small checkout line just ten minutes later, Derek had less than a second to react before Laura was reaching out and pinching his chin between her fingers. Her expression was sad, almost melancholy, and it was the only thing that kept Derek from wrenching his head back.  
  
“Remember when Uncle Peter had to show you how to use a razor?” She teased lightly, her thumb rubbing at the day-old stubble on his chin. “You could barely grow any peach fuzz. Now you’re starting to look like a caveman if you go for more than a day without shaving.”  
  
The fact that Laura was talking about the past so easily terrified Derek more than any alpha pack ever could.  
  
Derek ducked his eyes away, unable to even look at his sister and alpha without guilt consuming him. Laura dropped her hand, probably assuming she’d crossed a line, and they fell into an uncomfortable silence. Once they’d paid for their things and filled up the gas tank, Laura peeled out of the station as quickly as she’d pulled in.  
  
“We’ll head back to California.” Laura said, guiding the car towards the on-ramp. “Maybe… maybe Peter’s doing better. If not…I know mom and dad had a friend or two back home that might be able to help.”  
  
Derek’s heart stammered, dredging up memories that he desperately wished he could erase completely from his mind. Swallowing convulsively, Derek struggled to keep from sounding far too frantic. “Did you call all of the other packs? What about the Hayes? They’re just in—”  
  
“They don’t want to get involved.” Laura cut in, glancing at her cell phone in the corner of the dashboard like it was the bane of her existence.  
  
“The Saunders?” Derek tried, knowing for a fact that they were so old-school in the ways that they only kept a landline that was unplugged most of the time anyway. Laura dragged in a deep breath through her nose, eyes rolling at Derek like he was an unruly child.  
  
“It’s not likely—”  
  
“They’re just in Massachusetts, we could at least try. What if we lead the alpha pack back home and Peter’s still not better? What if they hurt him?” It was entirely likely. Derek had no idea what exactly an alpha pack even meant, let alone whether they were above killing a werewolf who may or may not have been capable of basic motor functions.  
  
Hesitating, Laura glanced back at the road. “We could try. I mean…it might…” trailing off, Laura squinted at the rearview mirror and then cursed under her breath. Derek turned, looking out the back window at the same time Laura slammed her foot against the gas pedal, his face smashing into the headrest. He forced his head up, cheek hurting for the few seconds it took to heal over the pain, and stared at the dark red SUV that was quickly advancing on them.  
  
“Put your seatbelt on.” Laura grabbed Derek’s sleeve, pulling it and forcing him down to sit properly. Derek did so without question, because it wasn’t every day she thought they would get in a wreck extreme enough that seatbelts were needed as an added security measure to go with accelerated healing.  
  
He looked up from buckling himself in to see them careening straight for a cluster of cars backed up in traffic. Instinctively, Derek clutched to the handle that was hooked on the ceiling, fingers of his other hand curling into his knee. Just before they smashed into the rear end of a white car rolling along innocently in the fast lane, Laura veered to the left to fly past them, tires wailing over the rumble strips.  
  
Derek didn’t even know he’d forgotten to breathe until Laura pulled back onto the road once they‘d passed the worst of the traffic, easing off of the gas enough that Derek could hear something over the roar the engine. That something being the deafening thunder of his own pulse. Laura guided the car towards the next off-ramp, neither of them uttering a word as she wound down road after road until finally pulling into a random parking garage and shutting off the ignition.  
  
Finally, Laura let out a long breath and turned to face Derek. “I think we might need help,” she admitted weakly, “any help we can find.”  
  
Laura looked tired, Derek realized. Her hair was in disarray, bun messy with strands sticking out at every angle imaginable. He didn’t see his big sister in that moment, nor did he see his alpha.  
  
He saw someone who was hardly older than himself, trying her hardest to keep the last of her family safe. She looked haggard and worn in that instant, like she’d finally admitted defeat, even as she reached for her phone one last time.  
  
What Derek didn’t know right then, was that in three years, Laura would say those exact same words with a suitcase in one hand and a plane ticket to Beacon Hills in the other.  
  
Sitting in the car and watching Laura scroll one last time through her small list of contacts, he felt only worry for the future. Derek had no idea he would soon learn to dread the sound of someone admitting the need for help, that he would come to associate it with the sight of Laura walking towards the airport terminal and leaving him in the care of a pack that was barely hospitable.  
  
He didn’t know now, and he wouldn’t know then, that the next time he would see Laura—after she promised to come back for him soon—would be standing in the woods of their old home and staring down at the two pieces of her dead body. It wouldn’t be for another three years that Derek would find out know how hard it would be to forget the image of his sister’s lifeless face trapped in an expression Derek would try for years to decipher.  
  



End file.
